Notes from an Aurora in the ascendant.

DM Some cautionary words on the life of a ballet dancer from an international star at the peak of her career:

"This is a profession for the young, and it's a very cruel profession. If it is not all-consuming, it's not what it should be. The stage takes up so much of your spirit, your drive, your focus. People say you should enjoy your job on the stage, but it's not for you to enjoy. Your job is to present your art and to radiate it. It's a miracle when the performance is special. Technique is not enough."

These comments come from Kirov Ballet principal Diana Vishneva, 29, She will lead the bevy of Auroras whom the company will field during its tour of The Sleeping Beauty in California and Detroit this month. Vishneva knows that not everyone agrees about the sacrifice of a ballet dancer's unswerving dedication to the art. For her, it includes the stricture that a ballerina resist motherhood while still performing. One day, Vishneva hopes, she will have children--in retirement.

Approximately 5'6" tall, with proportionately long arms and brown hair framing a flawlessly symmetrical face, Vishneva possesses the instrument, the virtuosity, and the stamina to project classic dancing into the farthest reaches of a large opera house. She is highly regarded for the energy and exactitude of her allegro work, which she executes with a center so calm that she sometimes makes bravura steps look too easy. However, in partnered adagio, Vishneva's composure and chiseled line can make her dancing luminous.

Vishneva appeared as guest artist last spring with American Ballet Theatre at the Met to overwhelming success. Following a rehearsal, she sat down to discuss her preparations for the role of Aurora, one of the cornerstones and most challenging roles of the 19th-century ballet repertoire.

Vishneva explained, through translator Julia Kocich, that she has performed Aurora in several different productions, including the historic reconstruction that the Kirov brought to the U.S. in 1999 and which remains in the repertoire alongside the Soviet-era version by Konstantin Sergeyev featured on the tour. She believes that Aurora is "the hardest role for a ballerina to dance well, [as] each act is completely different." Vishneva's favorite Aurora is the one in this Sergeyev production. She notes that this staging, in which she has been coached by former Kirov virtuosa Olga Chenchikova, has been beloved by Kirov dancers for the past half century.

"It is the most difficult. You can't hide behind the scenery or the costumes," Vishneva says. "All you can show is your professionalism and aesthetics. It is clean, classic, not a single unnecessary pose. Everything is purified. Our school is grounded in ballerinas doing the Sergeyev version. Everyone understands the aesthetic to the tips of their fingers." She adds that she knows she needs "to clean [her approach to the role], to work on it" yearly. "There is no perfection in the classics," Vishneva says. Indeed, she considers the rehearsal, rather than the performance, to be "the most precious part of the process."

When Vishneva watches other ballerinas in the role, she judges their performances on the basis of how they dance Act I, especially Aurora's entrance. "There are these key moments.

In the first entrance, she's got to sparkle and to transmit that in her pas de chat--very fast legs, so the audience is almost caught unawares," Vishneva says. "The coordination of everything--head, arms legs. I struggled with it; I worked very hard."

EDITED BY ALLAN ULRICH

The Kirov Ballet performs Oct 5-9 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Los Angeles; Oct. 12-16 at Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley; and Oct. 20-23 at the Detroit Opera House. See www.ardani.com